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BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Come Wednesday, it will be illegal to text message while driving in Maine. But there are ways to make your phone the solution, rather than the problem.

One Android application, called Text No More, rewards you with coupons when you drive without sending a text message.

Another app, called Driving Text Answering Machine, sets up an automated response when it detects you moving in a car — so you don’t have the ability to text behind the wheel.

If police catch you sending a message, it’s a minimum $100 fine.

“If you’ve done it, you know what it’s like to try and drive and maintain control of that car even on a short text. It is very difficult,” said Sgt. Paul Edwards of the Bangor Police Department.

Drivers on the road have noticed the dangers of distracted driving.

“I see other people doing it as they’re going through intersections and whatnot, and they’re not paying attention. And so I don’t need to be in an accident. I’m all set with that,” said Patrick Sullivan.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 20 percent of car accidents in 2009 involved distracted driving.

That year, 18 percent of accident fatalities involved a cell phone.

“People have been involved in numerous accidents,” said Edwards. ”It’s documented they’ve been in numerous accidents. And people have been hurt and killed in accidents due to texting so please don’t.”

Text messaging while driving is one of the leading causes of car crashes, and it is illegal while driving in New Jersey. There is a wide variety of smart phone apps designed to help reduce distractions while your teen is driving and keep their passengers safer on the road.

TextNoMore – Rewards program for avoiding texting and driving and sends a bounce back message.

Read More at www.NJTeenDriving.com/technology/TextNoMore

He didn’t feel that creating a way for people to follow the law was enough though. So he decided to add two other aspects to the app that make it stand out from others like it. He says when you first launch the app, “For the first 10 to 15 seconds you get a picture of a missing child, so you have a flyer in your back pocket.” There’s also a reward program for users. “It also rewards you every time with coupons from area merchants for food, merchandise, products and services. Up to 50 percent off and certain things are free,” he says. And if someone texts you while you have the app engaged they get an auto response about why you can’t respond and a coupon, too.

Stearns says the distracted driving problem is really bad in some other countries so they are working to get the app up and running in those places. They have the backing of several US congressmen and the U-N. But Stearns says some of his biggest supporters are kids who discover the app and convince parents and older siblings to use it. “Because of the reward system I think we can train these drivers that are 14, 15 so by the time they get to 16 and they are driving it won’t be cool to text while you drive,” says Stearns.

Text No More has just hired American Idol winner Jordan Sparks to be their spokeswoman and help get the word out to young people across the country.

The app is free, and Stearns says he wants to keep it that way. “We refuse to charge for saving lives,” he says. They do charge businesses that offer the user coupons $59 a month, and Stearns says, it’s a small fee to pay for a whole new batch of potential customers. Download the free app for Android and Blackberry here….iPhone is not available yet, but they’re still lobbying Apple to release the rights.

Text alerts and smartphone applications, like Text No More, which was designed to save lives on the road, are helping police spread the word when children disappear and are in danger.

A local company created a one of a kind app designed to prevent texting while driving, but discovered they could also help find missing kids.  Here’s how it works: the user downloads the free application to their smartphone, and prior to driving, the user activates the Text No More app, selecting an estimated time they will be driving. Once the Text No More app is enabled, an image of a missing child is displayed, followed by a reward from a Text No More partner, made up of local retailers. The reward is a coupon or freebie for stores near you, the reward will stay in your smartphone until you redeem it. While the Text No More app is enabled. It shuts down all notifications and holds incoming texts from coming through. It also prevents the driver from sending a text message. If the driver has Bluetooth, calls will still come through.

Rodney Stearns created Text No More app after seeing the worst of what can happen when drivers text while driving when he was a paramedic in Los Angeles for nine years.  Stearns said he started the application to entice drivers to put the smartphone down when they are driving, but the app is doing more than preventing distracted driving, it’s also helping find missing children.

“Originally, Text No More was supposed to be an anti-texting and driving app but with the downloads going in 14 countries, we decided that with millions if eyes, why not put missing kids there.”

Apps like Text No More are helping police in cases of missing children.  On Monday, an 8-year-old girl in Federal Way, Washington disappeared from the playground prompting her mother to call police, who in turn issued an Amber Alert.  An alert store clerk at a Target store in Federal Way noticed 28-year-old Benjamin Trinh shopping for clothes with the missing 8-year-old girl, acting strangely, and recognized the girl from an Amber Alert text that was sent to her smartphone earlier that day.  Police arrested Trinh within 24 hours thanks to the clerk’s help.

Stearns said, “It’s free. Download it. You are going to put a Mom at ease, put a family at ease, knowing there is an extra set of eyes.”  There are currently 15 children on the Text No More missing children app.  One of the first children to appear on the app was Kyron Horman, the Northwest Portland boy who disappeared from Skyline School on June 4, 2010.  Horman’s picture is still in the Text No More cue.

The app is gaining popularity, but Stearns hopes more smartphone users will download the app, “So it’s easier to get the message out there, and harder to hide a kid.”

More than 10,000 people in Portland have downloaded the free app so far this year.  Text No More is the only app that rewards users for not texting while driving.  The company makes money by charging the local businesses a flat monthly fee to offer a reward to the user.

The Blackberry app will be launched on Monday, April 18th.

www.KoinLocal6.com/TextNoMore

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www.Q13Fox.com/TextNoMore

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A new app called TextNoMore has been released with the goal of stopping people from texting on their cell phones while driving, thus hopefully saving lives. It is not the only app that offers a means to prevent texting and driving, but it does have a catch that the others do not. When the app is active, users that are texted will not receive the text. Instead they will receive a coupon from a sponsor as a reward for using the app, which essentially rewards the user for obeying the laws by not answering text messages while driving.

As technology continues to expand into previously unthought-of directions, the consequences for the progression begin to unfold, sometimes with tragic results. The act of texting while on a cell phone, something that was an obscurity five years ago, has become so prevalent, especially among teens, that a recent Nielsen report concluded that cell phone users under the age of 18 text more than four times more than they talk on their phones. Unfortunately the dangers of texting tend to be ignored, especially among teenagers, who have shown an affinity for disregarding the laws prohibiting texting while driving, but it is not just teenagers.

Texting while driving has become a universal issue, as evidenced by the recent death of Dr. Frank Ryan, 50, the plastic surgeon famous for operating on Hollywood stars, including The Hills’ Heidi Montag. Ryan recently died while driving to his home in Malibu. His ex-girlfriend claims that he was texting while driving, which caused him to miss a corner he had driven through many times, sending his car off a cliff.

“It is such a simple thing, but it really could save lives.” Text No More creator Rodney Stearns said. “As a father it terrifies me to think how preventable some of these deaths could have been.”

Other apps have also tried to encourage drivers to use them while driving to avoid the easily preventable distraction that has caused deaths, accidents, and even train wrecks. But most of them do not offer a benefit to use, and so most users are not inclined to use the app. With TextNoMore, the app rewards people for using it by offering them coupons and discounts with sponsors.

Simply turn the app on while driving, and when a text comes in, it will be held until the pre-selected time limit expires, or the app is turned off. For each text that was blocked, the user will receive a coupon for things like 50-percent off a haircut, 50-percent off clothing, food discounts and more. Users can also accrue minutes and save towards larger rewards, such as an iPhone, laptops and airline tickets.

“One of the coolest things about our app is that you don’t even need to download it to receive the benefit,” Stearns said.

People with smartphones that send texts to TextNoMore users will receive a message “person A is driving and cannot reply”, then the sender will also receive a coupon, regardless of whether or not they have the app. Future versions of the app will also integrate GPS tracking, in order to tailor the incoming rewards to the user’s current location.

A free version of the app is available to download at the company’s website, textnomore.com, which function the same, but users do not accrue points towards larger rewards. TextNoMore is a free download so head to the Android or Blackberry market and download it today!

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/text-no-more-app-rewards-users-for-obeying-the-law/

PICTURES: Kyron Horman Missing, New Photos

According to ABC affiliate KDRV, the“Text No More” campaign started in August and, till recently, sent coupons to people who did not text while driving. The company has since modified the app and is now forwarding cellphones a mobile version of Kyron’s missing poster. Kyron disappeared after a science fair at his Portland school on June 4. Investigators have focused on Kyron’s stepmother, Terri Moulton Horman, but have not arrested her or called her a suspect in the disappearance. She and the boy’s father have since divorced.

Kaine Horman and Desiree Young, the parents of missing boy, issued a plea last month before the holidays. ”We all still remain focused and relentless in the pursuit of bringing Kyron home. We would like to stress to everyone that Kyron has not yet been found and we need everyone’s help,” Kaine and Desiree said according to CBS affiliate KOIN.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Tip Line at 503-261-2847.

www.cbsnews.com

“When we started this company, we had no idea our application could be used to help a missing kid, but we now love that it can be a benefit,”Rodney Stearns, CEO and founder of TextNoMore, told AOL News.

According to Stearns, the Kyron Horman Foundation recently approached him about the idea. He said he did not need convincing — he was on board from the start.

“I am a father and I would be devastated if my kid went missing,” Stearns said. “Our application sends out thousands of coupons a month right now, so imagine if that many people are able to see this little boy’s face. It makes everyone a volunteer.”

Kyron was 7 years old when he disappeared on June 4. His stepmother, Terri Moulton Horman, told police she last saw the little boy walking to his classroom at Skyline Elementary School in Portland, Ore.

The search for Kyron has become one of the most intense in recent Oregon history and has attracted national attention. His parents have held countless vigils, passed out thousands of fliers and issued numerous public pleas, all to no avail.

The Kyron Horman Foundation and TextNoMore are hoping that adding Kyron’s photo and information to the application will result in new leads and illustrate how experimental high-tech tools can be blended in with traditional missing-person search methods.

TextNoMore is a mobile phone application that, once activated, holds all incoming texts and prevents the users from sending texts while they are driving. If drivers have a Bluetooth device connected, they can still receive incoming calls. For incoming texts, TextNoMore sends a standard reply along with a reward coupon good for free or discounted products and services.

“Anyone who texts you while it is active, regardless of what kind of phone they have or whether they have the app, will get an auto response and free reward,” Stearns said.

Stearns said he got the idea for the application when he was working as a paramedic.

“I would usually see what happened after you text and drive,” he said. “The apps that were out there before would detect if your car was moving and shut down your phone. They are expensive and the number of deaths was still going up. I figured the way I could get people to do something was to give them something. The user gets a reward when they activate it and the people who text them get a reward. If you get 25 texts, 25 people get coupons.”

Stearns said his application is used all over the world and sends out an average of about 300,000 coupons a month. The application is available on the Android phone right now and will be available for the BlackBerry next week. The company is also working toward getting other providers to offer the application.

The application is free to download. Advertisers pay $149 a month to use the service. Right now, the company is donating $100 to the Kyron Horman Foundation for every new business that signs up.

“We are not charging for adding Kyron to the queue,” Stearns said. “The great thing about this is that people will get an actual photo and description of Kyron. There are some similar alerts out there people can sign up for, but they are a text description — the typical height, hair, eye color. That really can’t compare to a color photo you can see.”

Stearns hopes use of tools such as TextNoMore will become more widespread in future missing-person search efforts and says he would like to partner with Amber Alert.

“All they have to do is give us the picture and the info and we’ll put that in the queue,” Stearns said. “It will then go out to everyone’s phone.”

Kyron is the only child being featured by the application; however, AOL News has put Stearns in contact with authorities in Maryland, and the two are working on adding 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes‘ photo and information to the application. Barnes, a resident of North Carolina, disappeared while visiting relatives in Baltimore on Dec. 28.

“This is exactly the type of thing we have been looking for to help get her photo out,” Baltimore police spokesmanAnthony Guglielmi told AOL News.

Stearns said his company will be adding Phylicia to the queue as soon as it receives her information from the Police Department.

“Our application saved lives by preventing people from texting and driving, but now it could also potentially save lives of missing kids and family members,” Stearn’s said.

www.AolNews.com/TextNoMore